There is abundant circumstantial evidence associating EBV with Burkitt lymphoma. EBV infection of lymphocytes in vitro results in the emergence of lymphoblastoid cell lines capable of continuous growth in culture. The goals of the studies described here are to (1) identify the stable RNA transcripts in partially permissive and non-permissive continuous lymphoblastoid cell lines and in tumor biopsies; (2) determine whether there are differences in post-transcriptional adenylation and in transport of RNA in partially permissive and non-permissive lymphoblastoid cells and in tumor tissue; (3) establish the sequence of activation of the EBV genome in non-permissive cells following exposure to inhibitors of DNA synthesis; and (4) eventually extend our studies of structural proteins of EBV to identify the structural proteins made in non-permissive cells. The importance of these experiments is twofold: (1) They will lead to a better understanding of the function of EBV in non-permissive infections associated with lymphoid proliferation; and (2) They establish the ground work for experimental manipulation of the system to more fully understand the interaction of viral and cellular genome. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Roizman, B., Frenkel, N., Kieff, E., and Spear, P. The Structure and Expression of Human Herpesvirus DNA in Producing Infection and in Transforming Cells. In: Origins of Human Cancer, ed. by J.D. Watson and H. Hiatt, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1977, in press. Orellana, T. and Kieff, E. Epstein-Barr Virus Specific RNA. II. Analysis of Polyadenylated Viral RNA in Restringent, Abortive and Productive Infection. J. Virol. 22, 1977, in press.